Re: GPL Mere Aggregation question

[David Kastrup]

rjack <danw6144@insightbb.com> writes:

> Richard Tobin wrote:
>> In article <HridnSGEI8yEhOnanZ2dnUVZ_jCdnZ2d@insightbb.com>,
>> rjack  <danw6144@insightbb.com> wrote:
>>
>>> There was once a company called SCO [...]
>>
>> Remind me, who sued whom?
>
> SCO, was a really stupid company that initially released software
> under the GPL. Remember SCO Linux?

Hm?  There was SCO Unix, and Caldera Linux.  They stopped the sales of
the (rebranded) Caldera Linux in order to sue both their upstream
sources as well as their downstream customers
<URL:http://ir.sco.com/ReleaseDetail.cfm?ReleaseID=109149>.  And that's
when things went downhill.

> After discovering the folly of the GPL business model they tried
> mindless litigation.
>
> This demonstrates the wisdom of incorporating Apache or BSD style
> licensing in commercial software.

Uh no.  This demonstrates the wisdom of not suing your sources and your
customers.  The GPL is not actually involved much in the stupidity of
SCO since the courts have decided that SCO does not even own the UNIX
copyrights, never mind under which license.

> The IBM Corporation, the world's first computer monopolist, whose
> revenue stream from the enforcement of software patents is second to
> none is playing the GPL folks for fools. The Microsoft Corporation,
> the world's second computer monopolist, desperately needs GPL Linux
> software to hold about 25% of the market to avoid DOJ antitrust
> scrutiny.
> Do GPL folks really think that long term they're going to win?

Playing fair never makes you win the race.  But finishing second or
third in every race rather than winning a single race is good enough.
You can go for broke only once.

> There is good evidence that commercial companies are planning future
> projects that incorporate real "open source" software under BSD and
> Apache style license due to the SFLC's intimidation tactics.

There is good evidence that commercial companies _are_ incorporating
software under BSD and Apache style licenses.  Quite a lot.  But this is
not interesting to others since they, as a rule, don't share the
results.

-- 
David Kastrup, Kriemhildstr. 15, 44793 Bochum